“I was worried when I read the statistics about ministers being overweight and unhealthy,” she says. Those numbers indicate that Protestant ministers have the highest overall work-related stress of any religious professional and one of the highest risks of heart disease of any profession. (To read the earlier story, please see Improving Pastors’ Health.
Anderson teaches others to prepare better meals through her business, Cooking Coach, and brought her talents to the seminary recently to teach students and spouses that preparing healthy meals is easier than they may have thought. “A lot of people don’t know how to cook, and they think it’s harder than it is,” Anderson says. “It’s so important to learn how to cook things that are good for you, and it’s so easy to do.”
The event proved a success. Students gathered for an evening of cooking various recipes. After learning various techniques and eating dinner, the students evaluated the meals. “It was a wonderful evening,” says Mary Chase-Ziolek, director of the Center for Faith and Health and associate professor of Health Ministries at the seminary.
The hands-on training will more likely have a long-term effect than simply giving a lecture, says Anderson, who says she enjoyed the evening as much as the students. “I loved it. It is a lot easier to teach a 25-year-old to eat black beans than it is someone who is 55.”
Still, Anderson hopes everyone will be brave enough to believe they can excel in the kitchen – and love eating healthy at the same time. Anderson grew up in a home where cooking was a high priority and was largely self-taught. A former mechanical engineer, she earned her degree in culinary arts three years ago.
Anderson left the engineering field when her first child was born and decided to start her business after the birth of her second child. The job still is part-time, she says, but the client list is growing.
She has worked with individuals, groups and has offered the classes in corporate settings as part of a company’s wellness program. Anderson says the students need only supply the kitchen – she brings all of the ingredients, pots and pans, and utensils.
Some people will balk at cooking healthy, saying it is too costly, but Anderson disagrees. “I don’t think it’s any more expensive when you compare it to your long-term health-care costs,” she says. Anderson notes, “People will pass up strawberries at $3.99 a pound – then pull down junk food that costs as much, and not think anything about it.”
Anderson encourages people, suggesting that cooking can be an adventure. She recommends people try including one new major ingredient or ethnic meal a month.
When Anderson thinks about cooking, she also understands it as more than something that is done in the kitchen. Good cooking can strengthen families. “I’m passionate about people sitting down and enjoying a meal together,” she says.
